14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the Beta for Sony's PlayStation Home Service is under way. PS3 Fanboy is reporting that the option for downloading the North American version of the Home beta, as well as launching it has been spotted in the PlayStation Store.
Images to your left will do little to enlighten you on the issue. However, if you're not among the selctees for the beta trial of Home, you shouldn't be all that upset. OK, you can feel bad about it (it's not like anyone can stop you), but you can't blame yourself for it.
Sony decided to select just a handful of testers by, whatever criteria they consider to be most appropriate, making the announcement of 15.000 users for the April - August trial and 50.000 users for the August - October trial, sound like a big fat lie. In fact, it's not. The "gifted" ones are surely well scattered across the American territory.
Now that we've all gotten over the fact that Sony didn't think we were up to the task, here's a more interesting aspect, recently discovered with the appearance of the option to download and test the service. Selected beta testers and also members of the official PlayStation forums, find it a little strange that Home appears in the Blu-ray section of PlayStation Store. What, don't tell me, you're thinking that Home will be distributed on Blu-ray discs?
Whatever the reason, it makes little difference for those who still have to wait until the end of October to get a first glimpse at Home. Some say it's going to be a lot like Linden's Second Life, while some think of it as joke: "This is an example of Sony's 'Mii-too' approach. Nintendo years ago considered and rejected the type of approach Sony is now taking," once said a Nintendo spokesman. Time alone has the answer.